Update: Gigabyte Accuses Asus Of Cheating

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Gigabyte Technology Co. has accused fellow Taiwan board maker ASUStek of “cheating” by including an undocumented overclocking mode which boosted ASUS to the top of recent motherboard reviews.

The so-called PEG Link mode overclocks the board, resulting in improved performance, Gigabyte claimed. ExtremeTech has not tested the Asus board in question; the recent tests performed on the chipset used a default Intel 925Xboard.

Asus, meanwhile, issued a statement defending its use of the controversial technology as one of a “wide range of innovations” found in its boards.

Below is the text of the Gigabyte memo:

“The launch of Intel 925X/915 Express chipset motherboards was the big event this year, and gained great interest from the world wide media. Since its official release, hundreds of reviews have been published about the Intel 925X/915 Express chipset.

“Media reviews often cover new chipset solutions, and offer consumers a preview or benchmark comparison between different motherboard makers. In order to provide the best performance results for these media comparisons, it’s not uncommon for motherboard manufacturers to fine tune their products accordingly. It is all based on fair competition, and attempts to ‘put their best foot forward” so to speak, in order to garner high praise from media editors. However, should there be any unique features put in place for these submissions, those should be clearly spelled out before hand.

“However, according to several reports gathered world wide, it has been commonly found that the ASUS 925X / 915P series motherboard, as compared to other motherboard makers, scores significantly better results on certain 3D graphics performance tests, where as other system benchmark results are fairly similar to that of similar class motherboards.

“Out of curiosity, we tested the ASUS P5AD2 Premium (Intel 925X motherboard). We found that in the ASUS P5AD2 Premium BIOS there is a setting called “PEG Link Mode”. This setting clandestinely overclocks the frequency of Memory and Core Engines of ATi based PCI-Express graphics. It was also found that “PEG Link Mode” is not an enhancement feature for motherboard, as it provides enhancement only to the graphics card’s memory and core engine frequency, ostensibly with the sole purpose to obtain higher benchmark results on 3D graphics.

(Note: Our tests conducted, we were able to detect the frequency of graphics card’s memory and core-engine frequency, using a well known Graphics and Monitor utility “Powerstrip”. http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm)

‘This non-standard BIOS setting on the ASUS P5AD2 Premium, and its consequential clandestine overclocking of the attached graphics card’s memory and core-engine frequency, and coupled with the fact that this special setting was not first revealed to the public or media review publications, is misleading to the public, seeks an unfair means to gain an advantage over the competition, and frankly sets a bad example which competitors may be forced to follow. For the benefit of all consumers, and in the spirit of fair competition, we urge all motherboard manufactures to adhere to common professional standards of providing full disclosure of and special system settings or modifications to the public, media, or review publications so that the consumer can make an educated purchase before their e [sic] open public information to all media.”

Asus, meanwhile,defended its approach in its own statement.

“This feature [PEG Link], found only on ASUS 915P- and 925X-based motherboards, allows users to raise GPU and VGA memory throughput via the motherboard BIOS the same way system bus and memory bus are tweaked,” the company said. “PEG Link Mode enables powerful video performance on DX8 and DX9 applications. ASUS engineers carefully fine-tuned the parameters for every single PCI-Express card to provide system stability during high-speed graphics operation.

“Under PEG Link, there are five settings for this unique function: Auto, Slow, Normal, Fast and Faster,” Asus added. “The default setting is Auto, which means the motherboard will automatically adjust for the correct frequency according to system configuration. For advanced users who demand more precise overclocking, they can select the other four settings to achieve the most suitable graphics card performance.”

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

ExtremeTech Newsletter

Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.

Email

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our
Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.